100 Levels
by RoseColoredSky
Summary: The Story follows players as they try to make it through the world of Aincrad. Please PM me OC's to be party members or suprise 'guests'. Feel free to submit a Boss OC! Just include the basic info on my bio. Note: This story does not feature Kirito as a main character. It is based of the Anime. I do not own Sword Art Online.
1. Chapter 1

Mini Prologue:

"Hey, Aryn, look what I got!" I teased my sister while waving two tickets.

"Hey, Azalea, _go away_." she mocked.

"Why? This is your early birthday present. It cost me 300 dollars to get these, all because you were too lazy to tell me you wanted 'em" I loved my twin, but sometimes it felt like she was a lost cause.

"What are they?" she eyed them suspiciously.

"Tickets to the beta test of SAO. I only found out today that you wanted one, and they gave away accounts yesterday. I had to buy 'em off a black market dealer guy!" I explained.

"Really!" her interest piqued. She loved stuff like this.

"Yup! We'll work together to dominate the game." I said. Aryn always wanted people to know her name. This would be a chance. If only I had known my gift would take the course it did. I will never regret anything more than that day. She claims it's not my fault. She says will get out of this together. But I'm not sure we will.

Chapter 1

(12 weeks after prologue)

"Did you hear? They are officially launching SAO!" I heard one of my classmates screech. Everyone knew my sister and I were beta testers. They also knew that not playing the game had taken a toll on us. For the month in between the beta test and the official release, I had been irritable and cranky. I couldn't jump as high, run as fast, or even see as well. Wearing glasses in real life had caused me to use my skill points on observation in the beta test. Many people thought it was useless, but I speak from experience; it makes a huge difference. It's easier to follow the monsters movements and detect patterns. Sometimes I'll find an ultra-rare item just sitting on the ground, because no one else could see it. Aryn, on the other hand, was renowned in the game for her incredible HP. She had little strength, and only a little bit above average agility. But because of her HP and agility, no one could hit her, and if they did, it wouldn't matter. She was practically invincible. Because of our bizarre, heavily upgraded abilities, we frequented the front lines. Thank Goodness I couldn't upgrade my hearing in real life. The constant stream of questions about game play was getting annoying. I had an announcement to make. "Everybody," I began, "Aryn and I don't need a party. There is a class for beginning players being run by beta-testers right outside of The Town of Beginning. Attend that, and you'll be fine. You will find other members looking for parties there." the members of my class didn't look so happy, I think I heard one call me an un-desirable name, but they got the message. Aryn was not being nearly as polite. When asking if we'd join their party, Aryn met them with a cold glare and a smirk. "Find me after two days of game play. Make it to level 15 by then, and we'll welcome you." she'd say. This request was, in course, impossible. She was only leading them to two days of dying over and over again trying to level up quickly. As the chatter in our class died down, Aryn and I sat down at our desks. A boring lecture about the properties of matter ensued.

• {Just a line break} •

"I can't wait! My mom bought me special armor. She's one of the game engineers!" Tyler bragged. He did it constantly. Everyone in the school knew; His mom was a software engineer. Everyone _also_ knew that no one cared. _Except_ Tyler. We lived close to each other, so Aryn, Tyler, and I all walked home together.

"I'll see you in the front lines then, right?" I questioned, aiming a glance at Aryn. He wasn't any better than everyone else. There was no way he could fight the front lines without a good amount of experience. I personally recommend LV 10 at least, and that's for the LV 1 boss. I know the beta testers would begin at LV 1 too, but we could level up quicker.

"Of Course! Don't worry; you ladies can just hide behind me. I'll protect y- Oww!" he screeched as Aryn landed a well-aimed kick. I don't think Tyler will ever have children. As Tyler recovered, I shot another glance at Aryn.

"Good one." I complimented

"Thank you" Aryn looked smug.

"What the heck was that for? You can't just kick people there!" Tyler screeched.

"Don't be sexist." She replied "If anyone needs to hide, it will be you. No doubt your special armor will attract monsters." She replied as we turned away from Tyler onto our driveway. I opened the door and ran for my room. Everything was set up. I checked the time. School had let out early, so it was only 12:45. We still had 15 minutes until the game was accessible.

"We have some time. Let's make a plan." I suggested. She thought for a moment, and then replied.

"Let's meet at the clock in beginner's town. I know there was a weapons and armor shop nearby, so we can get equipment. The game has some different features this time too. There aren't any bargain stores or rip off stores in the first two Towns, so we don't have to shop around. Equipment costs the same no matter where you go."

"If we go train in GreenFire Forest we can get money and special items. We'll level up faster too!" I mentioned.

"Okay, hurry, it's almost 12:00, meet you in-game!" She said. I looked up. She was already gone. I walked in my room and put on my nerve-gear and laid down. Suddenly I was flying through space. After the title screen and a little details I won't mention, I found myself in a familiar plaza. As my feet touched the ground, I took off running. Dashing through the streets, I headed towards the clock tower. As I neared my destination, I saw Aryn. She hadn't changed her appearance from the beta test. Same wine red eyes and black hair. Not to mention, she was still a beast tamer, and had kept her white wolf. We took the chance to look as different from each other as possible, so I had white hair and green eyes. I was still a beast tamer, and I had a black dragon.

"I found you!" I said, stating the obvious.

"Really? I hadn't noticed" she replied sarcastically. She handed a sword and armor to me. "You took too long. They only had one kind of armor and one kind of sword for an agility-based beast tamer." she explained, answering both of my questions.

"Let's go train"

• {It's me again!}•

As I put an end to another pig in GreenFire Forest, Aryn started making a strange noise. I can only describe it as a sort of squeal.

"What is it?" I asked, concerned.

"The boar was holding 250 cor! We're rich!" She exclaimed.

"You had me worried for a second There that something was wrong, like we couldn't log out or something. Don't make that noise." I told her.

"Let's go back to t-" she was cut off by the sound of a huge bell ringing in the distance. We exchanged glances. Suddenly, we were back at the plaza of Beginners Town. I looked at Aryn for an answer. She looked at me, hoping for the same thing. Lots of people were in the plaza, dazed and confused. Suddenly, a piece of the sky turned red. The word error was written on it. As the sky filled with red, panic spread. Red goop leaked from in between the pieces of sky, forming a large glob, which morphed into a giant GM... with no face. As the figure explained that we wouldn't be able to get out, the plaza was filled with muttering, crying, and sounds of utter despair. I turned to look at Aryn. I couldn't control my body, and I was shaking. I could feel tears streaming down my face. Aryn, of course, had her hand on the hilt of her Sword, and looked more angry than terrified. As the atmosphere returned to normal, she grabbed my hand, and ran. I kept muttering and sobbing. After running for some time, I realized where we were headed.

"Take off your armor." Aryn ordered as we stopped. We took off our armor, un-equipped our swords, and took the armor off our pets. While I had been wallowing in despair, Aryn had brought us to an armory.

"This place sells the best armor in town. We have enough money from killing those boars to buy expensive armor. We didn't use many of our potions, so we don't need to restock. We'll leave town early tomorrow morning. We'll stay in an inn, and we can talk then, okay?" I could only nod.

Suddenly, something crossed my mind. "What about Tyler?" I blurted. Aryn looked at me sadly, and replied "Did you see that statue we stood next to? With the names of the deceased?"

"No..." I couldn't believe it...

"Tyler's mom pulled of the nerve gear."

She said solemnly. We had stood next to Tyler only five hours ago. Now he was dead.

• {I'm sorry if you're named Tyler} •

We left the Inn. It had cost us one cor, which was pretty cheap. The money in this game is pretty simple.

2 bronzes to a silver, 2 silvers to a cor. A bronze is about 3 real life dollars. However, 12 dollars for a room is incredibly cheap in real life. However, inn rooms were unlimited here, so the price drops considerably. Good weapons can cost up to 3000 cor, or 36,000 dollars, which is insanely expensive. However, we weren't at that level yet. The best we could even use at LV 3 was only about 50 bronze a piece. When compared to food or lodgings, weapons are the real expense. Armor is similar. We still have some money left from killing those wolves, so we bought some breakfast. Beginning Town only sells bread like items, so we had rolls. In the streets, new players were still panicking. I wonder how many of these people we know. How many of their lives mattered to us? My sister had insisted that we leave town alone. She said that some people probably already left, and that others would leave soon. We had to go along, or we'd run out of money and there wouldn't be anything left to kill either. I knew leveling up was important, so I followed her. But the guilty parts of me didn't care. It was selfish, and others would die. But that didn't stop my feet. In this situation, beating the game was the primary goal. Everything else was not really as important. Not just for us, but for everyone. My sister kept telling me that we were subjecting ourselves to a greater risk by taking on strong monsters and fighting at the front lines. She had somehow remained cool-headed while I had turned into a shaking, sobbing, and helpless blob of tears. My sister had kept her head, while I had gone nuts. I think that's why god made us twins. I taught Aryn how to enjoy the happy times, and she kept me alive during crisis. We were entirely different, except for the dark grey hair and indigo eyes. I knew I would be dead without her, and that these people had no Aryn. I couldn't help but feel awful. Whispering a short prayer for them, I looked forward at my sister and sped up a little. If we were going to survive, I needed to stop depending on her so much. We left town, and headed for the next town. Any monster that crossed our paths was killed before it could land a shot.

•{Coming up: The shoe-fire}•

We got to the next town around noon.

"Let's get some lunch and then take a break." Aryn said.

"Do we need to eat?" I felt compelled to ask. She was the expert.

"No, but I'm not used to not eating yet, and food is cheap." She admitted.

We headed towards a store, and surveyed the menu. This town offered not only bread, but meat as well! I looked for the cheapest thing on the menu, until I heard my sister whisper

" Get whatever you want, I'm getting the most expensive thing they have."

I decided on a Spicy Roast Boar Sandwich, while she ordered a Seared Wolf Sub. Her wolf, Ilia, didn't like this very much. She sniffed the sandwich, and then gave Aryn this look. It clearly said 'You dirty Cannibal!' My dragon, Syran, on the other hand, wasn't as hesitant. Pets in the game didn't eat, but that didn't stop her from trying. As we walked to a park in the center of town and sat down, I gave both pets a small piece of my sandwich. As they promptly spit it out, I saw a little message pop up.

"Congratulations! Ilia and Syran have learned 'Fire Breath'" I read. As I finished telling Aryn, I saw Syran cough. And fire came out of her mouth. Onto my shoe.

"Ahhhh! Put it out! Put it out!" I yelled.

"Stop drop and roll!" Aryn joked. As I looked at my shoe, I realized the shoe was still on fire, but it wasn't burning. I, against the sane part of my minds will, stuck my finger in the tiny shoe-fire. It didn't hurt. I tried to snuff out the fire with my hand, but it didn't work. Another message popped up. It said "Congratulations! Azalea has learned a new skill". But my shoe-fire didn't go out.

"Ish tha thin eva gonna go out?" Aryn asked, her mouth full of sandwich. We were answered when another message popped up. I read it aloud.

"Congratulations! Azalea has learned 'Never-Ending Shoe-Fire.'"

I stared for a second.

"Is this a joke?" I asked no one in particular. After a few moments, Aryn fell over and started laughing. A passer-by stared at my shoe. Aryn found this hilarious too. Trying to ease the poor guy's fears (and make Aryn laugh some more) I yelled

"Don't worry, My shoe does that."

The man just stared, and then ran away. I thought for a moment, then pulled up my menu. Aside from scaring people, did this skill do anything? As I flipped through the skill dictionary, I found it.

"Never-Ending Shoe-Fire"

'Extremely rare skill. Fire only harms enemies, and won't catch anything except enemies on fire. The fire cannot be put out, and will remain on whatever shoe you wear, even if you change shoes. The shoe-fire will appear on your feet if you decide not to wear shoes. It is part of our three skill line of gag skills. 1 player(s) has this skill.'

I read out loud. I found myself saying

"Are you serious?"

Aryn finally stopped laughing. She noticed a couple staring and pointing at my shoe.

"Shut up! Don't judge us just 'cause her shoe is on fire! What's wrong with you?" She yelled. The couple ran away, and she chuckled again. We finished our sandwiches, and opened a map. Since the town was nearly empty, we were able to do this out in the open. We didn't want to be targeted by thieves. Not to mention my shoe. We decided to go training in the nearby valleys. Filled with level 5 monsters, Shadow Valley was not a place for level 1 players, but we knew what we were doing. Our technique involved me targeting and kicking gnomes while our pets breathed fire on them. After they were blazing, Aryn would pop up and finish them off. After a day of training, our pets were level 2, we were level 2, and my skill was level 3, resulting in a hotter, brighter, and bigger flame. Still, only the tip of my shoe was on fire. I suspect it will have to level up completely before covering my whole foot.

• {Fast-Forward, A lot} •

The front-liners were holding a meeting in the fourth town. No one could find the level 1 boss. This, of course, was an issue, because we had to kill it to get to the next level. As we walked into the meeting place, a few people stared at me. Most front-liners knew the tale of my shoe-fire, but a lot of them still weren't used to it. We quickly sat down, and after a minute or so, a man in blue with blue hair, Diabel, walked to the center of the area. He announced that a party had found the boss, and told us to form parties. Me and Aryn had already formed a partnership, so we sat together, unmoving. As I wondered if it was okay for us to only is a pair, not a party of six, a man with orange hair jumped down. He began to blame the deaths of 2000 players on the beta-testers, and demanded compensation. I could only look down, while Aryn began to twitch. She was about to attack the man when another guy stepped up. He confronted the orange haired one and told him about the guide book. As both men sat down, Diabel resumed his speech. He mentioned the newest issue of the guide-book, and then talked about Illfang the Kobold Lord. He assigned groups to attack in a pattern to kill the boss. After realizing that one party of six and two groups of two were left, he told us to attack the boss's minion. While the other pair and team (and Aryn) didn't look happy, I was thrilled. Only one of the main parties would get exp. and items. The little parties that killed off the sentinels would get exp., items, and money. It would be less valuable, but it was better than getting nothing after all that work. The group dispersed, but we soon realized that everyone was headed to the same place, the inn. Most of the group stayed at a small park in front of the nicest inn in town and drank, while a few people (who couldn't drink because they were too young) split off and headed towards the inn, or sat outside and thought. Aryn and I rented a room for the night. While she ranted about how inns were getting more and more expensive as we moved from town to town (Which they were, it had cost 10 gold this time), I closed the windows. With the windows open, people could hear us, or break in. I sat down on the bed and took of my shoes. My foot was still on fire, but I had gotten used to it.

"What are you doing?" Aryn asked curiously. I had started rummaging through my bag.

"The thing I miss most," I started," Is painting my nails. I know it's stupid, but I feel less me-like now. I got a recipe from a girl we trained with, and bought some stuff. I'm painting my nails."

Aryn looked a little puzzled, and then smiled.

"You gotta do what you gotta do. I hope you don't mind that I bought some stuff to make a Big Mac with." she said. I would have been angry, but I done the same thing. But she was right. In this unfamiliar world, we had to do things we did before, or we'll go crazy. I decided to just shake my head. As I took out the monster jelly and boar horn enamel, Aryn began making her Big Mac. She had more than enough ingredients, and made two more Big Macs. She gave two to Syran and Ilia, and wolfed down her own. I could see why the game gave her a wolf. Syran stared at hers, and then looked curiously at me. I had Aryn mix the ingredients with her high cooking skill (Which applied to not only food, but anything that must be mixed [Mine hadn't gotten better since the beginning of the 'game']). Putting the stuff into a bottle, I proceeded to paint my nails blue. Happy with the results, I laid back. I saw Aryn staring at me. I could tell she was having trouble not laughing. I still had Syran's and my armor equipped, and she had begun nudging me and aiming puffs of fire at me. We had realized that the fire didn't hurt us, and never started another never-ending fire again, so this didn't particularly worry me. I took off our armor, and opened my menu.

"I still haven't distributed my skill points from training earlier today. Where should I put them?" I turned to Aryn. She knew about this kind of thing.

"Observation, agility, and HP." She replied. "The boss might drop un-seeable items and we can pick them up after everyone leaves, and agility and HP will help dispatch his minions quickly, earning us more stuff."

Her explanation made sense, so I split up most of my skill points into those categories. I couldn't help but mention that I was two skill points away from upgrading my hearing skill to the point where I could hear through doors, but after calling me sketchy, Aryn said to upgrade that too. You see, I wasn't planning on using it often, but I was not the only one with such a skill. This way we could hear whether or not someone was eavesdropping on us. We weren't paranoid, but we were two of the 20% population of females, 15% of whom were older than 30. Criminals ran rampid in this game due to the lack of police and government, and Aryn and I were also beta testers, the most hated players of the 'game'. We were practically PK-er bait. We didn't brag about that, but we still wanted to be safe. After deciding my skills, Aryn and I started our nightly walk through other-world lane. In the third town, a group of people controlled the town. Every resident was a former front liner who had given up, and decided they liked this world better anyways. We were almost swayed by them, until I mentioned our family. We realized what was happening, and got out of that town quickly. It was like the Town of the Lotus Eaters. I mean, the town was literally named Lotus Town, claiming it was because the mayor liked flowers. Once you go there, the words of the residents make you think the world you left behind isn't worth the risk, and they all wish to live in this one. Travelers avoid the town. To avoid the same mindset and give us something to fight for, every night me and Aryn talk about what we'll do when we get back home.

"I'm going to call all my friends, and everyone I know, and all the players I met, and we'll have a party, and we can eat ice cream together." I said, not making much sense. What can I say, I was thinking of ice cream!

"I want," Aryn began, "to eat five big macs while watching anime." She said.

"Big macs. Real Deep." I said.

"Yaahh... Sorry." she replied.

"I think it's pretty late. Let's go to sleep." I yawned. After putting on a pair of low-stat, particularly comfy clothes, I flicked of the lights and curled up in my bed. I could already hear Aryn snore as Syran landed next to me. As I drifted off to sleep, I thanked god Aryn was still alive. I made Aryn upgrade her armor a lot so she wouldn't die. It really is my fault that we're here.

• {Good Night} •

When we left the hotel, everyone was still asleep. I wanted to buy better armor and weapons before we faced the boss. We had never fought with these people, and if they couldn't fight the boss, I wanted to escape alive. The best armor was expensive, but we could afford it with the money we had gotten training yesterday. Once we had all our armor, we walked back to the park. We greeted the other pair, team E, a boy and a girl (a couple?), and sat down. Pulling out two buns and a few pet treats, Aryn sighed.

"A little nervous?" I asked.

"It's our first boss..." Aryn replied.

"We'll only be fighting the sentinels, we'll be fine. You can have my bun tomorrow if anyone is injured." I told her. Ilia nuzzled her hand to reinforce the message. Or ask for another treat. Whatever floats your boat. As the last member of our misfit army woke up, we had another meeting. Diabel reviewed the plan again, and we headed for the Level One Boss: Illfang the Kobold Lord.

•{Weeeee!}•

As I decapitated another Kobold Sentinel with my flaming sword, I noticed the main party was having some trouble. The other party of two was taking out sentinels, but paused as they too noticed the trouble.

"Stand back! I'll Go!" Diabel yelled. He must be trying to get the rare item. However, as he went to attack, Illfang began to use a no-dachi. The first boss with that weapon had been level 54. This man had no chance. As Illfang catapulted himself into the air, the boy from team E yelled

"No! Jump back as fast as you can!"

I could only stare in horror as Diabel was hit and flew off to the side. Aryn, of course, began wiping out Ruin Kobold Sentinels so she could attack the boss. The monster jumped into the crowd, roaring. As Diabel burst into pixels, the boy from group e got up. The girl stood next to him, and as we fought of sentinels and they attacked Illfang, I finally recognized him as Kirito. That boy had single handedly made it two levels farther than us, and we made it to level 6. Kirito wasn't a legend among beta testers, but he did fight along-side us once during a unified attack on the level 2 boss, much like this one. He made it higher than anyone else. In the beta test, Aryn and I disliked him because he had taken away the spot of first. But now, I was filled with gratitude that he was saving these people. Even if he had left us the sentinels in favor of attacking Illfang. As Kirito and the other girl attacked, the rest of the group seemed to get back on their feet. When the two were hit, a bald African American man stepped up and led the army. As Kirito landed the last hit, the last of the Ruin Kobold Sentinels disappeared.

"We did it"s, "It's over!"s, and " For Diabel!" s erupted from the crowd. A 'Giant Congratulations' appeared overhead. Everything was great. We all cheered for Kirito, until the orange haired man yelled with grief.

"Why? Why did you let Diabel die?" The crowd quieted down.

"Let him die?" Kirito asked

"Of Course! You knew the technique the boss used. If you had told us that up front, he wouldn't have died!" the man yelled. Another man spoke up

"He must be a beta tester! That's how he knew all the bosses attack patterns! He knew, and he didn't tell us!"

The man continued.

"Other beta testers are here, too, right! Come Out!"

Everyone looked at each other with distrust. I looked back and forth. If someone didn't stop this soon, one or two beta testers might step up. And then get robbed or killed. As tensions rose, Kirito laughed. He got louder and louder. Everyone stopped and stared.

"A beta tester?" he said, getting up. "I wish you wouldn't compare me to those newbies."

"W-What!?" The orange haired man yelled.

"Most of the thousand beta testers were beginners who didn't even know how to level up. You guys are better than they are." He began to walk throughout the crowd. "But I'm not like them. I made it higher than anyone else in the beta test. The reason I knew the bosses skills is because I fought monsters with Katana skills on floors far above us. I know a lot more. Way more than any information broker."

"Show off." I muttered.

"W-What?" The orange haired man stuttered. "That's way worse than a beta tester. You're cheating! A cheater!" he yelled

"Yeah, a Cheater" one man yelled

"A beta tester and a Cheater...A beater!"

"A beater... I like it." Kirito said.

"That's right, I'm a beater. From now on, don't confuse me with those other testers." He put on The Cloak of Midnight. I knew he was right. He was far stronger than any normal tester. But he sure was being a jerk about it. I've never met Kirito personally, so I'm not sure if he's just trying to give everyone a common enemy, but still... He began to leave, and after speaking to the girl, Asuna, he exited the room. I was pretty anxious to get out of there before all the beta testers were burned at the stake, so I grabbed Aryn's hand and began to walk away. However, a man from the crowd stopped us

" Turn over your items." he said. A few others circled around us, and about half the group turned.

"What? Didn't Diabel say that whoever got an item kept it?" I asked. Aryn glared at the men around her.

The man who originally stopped us spoke.

" Yes, but no one except you got items, because we didn't land the last hit or kill any sentinels. That's not fair. You recognized the moves too, so you're beta testers."

Aryn couldn't take it anymore.

" You treated us like idiots 'cause you thought we were weaker than you. Then, because we were a pair of two you refused to give us a shot at the boss. You gave us the hard, unrewarding part and took the best place for yourselves. After that, if you want items, I hope you gave good observation, because you're not getting anything from us." As she finished, I broke from the circle and looked around. After finding a few items on the ground. I was joined by others. However, they couldn't see what I could see. As I picked up a large axe, the same man walked over and laughed. "Why don't you give that to me? You can barely lift it!" I resisted putting the axe in his head, and put it in my inventory instead. Ignoring the man, I called Aryn over, and we left.

**Hi everyone, Its Rose Colored Sky. I've never done a long-term chapter story, so updates may be a little slow. Believe it or not, I did have another account with a few one shots, but I deleted them... **_**Anyways, **_**this story is really about my OCs Azalea and Aryn, but they will run across Kirito sometimes. If you guys find any errors, please let me know.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm sorry I didn't post this sooner! I meant to post it two days ago… **

**I'll be introducing three new characters. If your OC isn't in this chapter, they'll probably be in ch. 3 or 4. **

Level 2

Leaving level 1, we were promptly greeted by the sight of a giant jungle, and a town in the distance. You see, level 1 consists of four towns, four different terrains, and the labyrinth. Every level afterwards has one town, one terrain, and a labyrinth. The frontliners normally live in inns or teleport daily. They train in the highest level available's terrain, and when the time comes, fight the boss with other frontliners in the labyrinth. Level two is full of jungles, and has a European style town. Aryn and I headed to the town, which was simply called Level 2 Town. Selling the extra items from the boss battle, Aryn and I equipped our newly bought armor and swords. Aryn got this shawl thing, while I was able to convince her to let me keep a high level cape I had found. I probably wouldn't need to get a new one for a long time either! I know it's corny, but my cape is awesome. Not to mention it increases my agility by 50%, which is pretty good, considering we also leveled up to LV. 3 after the boss battle. It was already fairly late; the boss battle had taken most of the day. We got a room at an inn (14 cor, Aryn was furious), and relaxed. While painting my nails, I got the weirdest thought.

"Maybe we should buy a house?" I said.

"Maybe we should /what/!?" Aryn was shocked.

"A house. We wouldn't have to worry about the other patrons at the inn, and it wouldn't cost us money more every night. We could get a small one, but with a kitchen, hallways, and rooms."

"I like the inn. It's cheaper," Aryn stated stoically.

" Not really; we could be here for a long time. It took us two months to clear level 1!" I replied, getting a bit annoyed.

"I'll think about it. Maybe later, not right away." Aryn said noncommittally.

I knew Aryn didn't really want to think that we might be here for a long time. Every day we told ourselves that we would make it. We never said anything about how long or how difficult it would be. I snapped back to reality and began to get ready for bed. Tomorrow would be a hard day of rigorous training, and Aryn and I hoped to turn our Level 3 into a level 4 or 5.

•{Azalea owes Aryn a Bun... Diabel Died }•

"Hi- _YAAAH_!" Aryn yelled, decapitating one more ogre. They were particularly strange creatures, with ugly yellow, green, and orange speckled skin, and because of the many varieties that covered level 2, it was nicknamed Ogre-topia by the small population of 2000. Even the helpful NPCs like shop-owners and inn-keepers were ogres. Even in the beta test there weren't this many.

"Azalea! That ogre was holding so much Cor! We can upgrade _all _of our armor!" Aryn yelled excitedly. A few others looked jealously at her. We were with a group of ogre exterminators. When we attacked the Boss of this Level, Torgokk, King of Ogres, it would unlock a special event. All the ogres, even the nice ones, would start to attack players. Ogres that were killed before-hand were replaced by other monsters or human NPCs. So everyday, a large group of clearers and fighters attacked the packs of ogres that roamed the jungles around the level 2 town. We normally went along, even though we knew none of them. The other clearers were in the labyrinth searching for the boss's room or organizing the town's evacuation and the attack. After our group was finished with these ogres, we would flee back to town before they were replaced by other enemies. The majority would return to headquarters, and a huge house that was bought by a large guild. It was close to the nicest inn in level two town, so it was convenient for people to visit. We had already exterminated most of the in town ogres, and the pack we were taking care of right now was steadily getting smaller. Our group of attackers was mostly level 1s and 2s, so when Aryn wiped out enough

ogres to level up, she became the head of the group at LV 4. Because of this, we could easily target and kill the LV.3 ogres, making us earn exp and money much more quickly than the others. Nearly everyone was attacking ogres in groups of three or four as well, but with our perfectly upgraded stats made to compliment one another's strength, Aryn and I dominated the crowd of "solo" players. As one or two groups finished off their respective ogres, I took a quick look around. The field was empty. When the last ogre was killed off, they would re-appear as LV. 5 Saber Toothed Lions, according to the information broker.

"Run!" someone yelled. "The last ogre just died!" Everyone bolted for the town as a few players threw bombs at the now appearing monsters. As we ran, I noticed the monsters were significantly slower than even the slowest player. They weren't even walking _towards _us.

"Stop throwing bombs! They aren't after us!" Another player yelled. As the bomb throwing ceased, many players slowed down. I didn't plan too, and as Aryn sped up, it was clear she didn't either. If too many strong players slowed down, the weaker players all would too. Some idiot in the crowd might get the idea we could take them, and then someone _would _die. Better to just keep running. As the town came into view, it was easy to see that the other players had decided to run again and get away from the higher level monsters. A small group of civilians waved at our pack when we came into town. With more space and cleaner streets, Level 2 town was much nicer than the level 1 towns, so a lot of non-clearers had decided to live here, and some even started businesses. Out of almost 4000 player residents, only about 1000 were fighting ogres, searching the labyrinth, or planning the attack. Unfortunately, this led to a lot more work for all the clearers, because we have to protect them. But it was nice to have 3000 people admiring you. The streets in the level 2 town were fairly straight and very wide, so our group had no trouble getting to head quarters. As we went to leave the large house, someone stopped Aryn.

"Would you like to join our party?" He asked. Behind him were four smiling men, all in their twenties.

"We need another player, and you seem very strong..." One of the men said, as his attention seemingly drifted elsewhere.

"Sorry, she's with me. We have a partnership," I said, frowning. We continued outside without trouble. I looked at Aryn, and she looked at me. We burst out laughing simultaneously.

"Did you see that one guy! I don't think he knew I had a face!"

"Well, that's because you're 'gifted'!" I chuckled. It was a running joke between us that the only difference between us was our hair, and our chests. I was flat as a cutting board. Aryn was... not. This caused her to attract far too many guys. As I teased Aryn, we reached the hotel. I got us a key, and we headed towards our room. After locking our door and shutting the windows, Aryn finally felt safe enough too relax and take off her armor. Her armor was great for defense, but wasn't exactly comfy or great for her agility. But she was afraid of the ogres still left in town (as am I), and wouldn't take off her armor until we reached our hotel. I hardly _ever _took mine off. My armor doesn't help my defense that much, so it was fairly comfortable. Being a speed based warrior required agility, so I wore agility enhancing armor and clothes, which tended to be very light and comfortable. Instead, I just sat down on the bed. As I played with Syran, Aryn decided to belly flop onto the bed. Even if the pain of fighting wasn't real until your HP hit zero, it was still exhausting. Aryn used a lot of strength, while I jumped around the whole time. Our stats were very extreme. When a normal person says that they are a agility type warrior, they mean their speed stat is higher than their strength and HP. When _I _say I'm a speed type warrior, I mean my strength is so low that I need to hit the enemy ten times to do as much damage as they will in one hit. My agility is so strong that I could do _twenty_ hits in the time they could even _begin _one. Same with Aryn. Her strength is five times better than an average strength type player. However, she can run only as fast as she can in real life, and her HP is only a bit above average. I distract the enemy (while landing hits), and Aryn attacks the vital points to do tons of damage. As we distributed our skill points that we earned today, Aryn groaned.

"What's wrong?" I asked, confused. She looked at me, then back to her menu.

"I'm one point away from leveling up my strength, and one point away from leveling up my HP. I only have one point left!" she replied. The woes of distributing skill points at their finest. I closed my menu and flopped backwards. Syran decided to land on top of me. It was her new favorite place to be. Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly comfortable for me. Aryn laughed, then closed her menu, turned off the light, and flopped down on her bed too.

•{Introducing: Tenrai, Kaleb, and Sonata!}•

"I dunno. Maybe it's not a good idea to go to level 2. We can still train here, and we'd have to go through the labyrinth. There are still monsters there!" I said. Kaleb really is headstrong. He wanted to go to level two and be a clearer...

"No! We're both at LV 3 already, and we aren't getting enough exp from the weaker monsters here. We should move up!" He retorted.

"Fine," I groaned. I already knew that we were gonna die. We were already standing outside the labyrinth. I didn't want to admit it, but I had been hoping we would meet a strong player at the training so we could join their party and move up with them. Even though Kaleb hadn't told me, I figured it out easily. Aside from the fact that he stumbled, and had /terrible/ accuracy, the cloudiness in his purple eyes told me he was blind. I was an archer, so I was supposed to cover him while he attacked, but most of the time he let monsters attack me, because he couldn't see them, so I had to pull out my dagger and fight too. With our strange fighting style, it was a wonder we weren't dead already. We had been saved numerous times by teleportation crystals, but everyone knew that the labyrinth was an anti-teleportation area. Yet we headed in anyways, Kaleb doing his best to lead the way. At first, it was easy, and only one monster would attack us at a time. But as we headed in deeper, it got harder and harder. At this point, we were fighting of 5 lower level monsters and were backed into a corner. Suddenly, the light was blocked of by a giant monster looming over us. Kaleb turned to me.

"I just wanted to let you know before we died that I'm sorry; I'm blind," he admitted.

"I know; it's fine," I replied. Before he could figure out what I said, the giant monster swung his sword. As I braced myself and felt Kaleb do the same, I saw a bright light through my eyelids and felt a rush of air. Is this what it's like to die? Opening my eyes, I saw that another player was attacking the monsters, and had already killed the huge enemy that had almost done the same to us. I figured I should probably help, but before I could notch an arrow, he had already taken care of all the monsters. He turned to us.

"You really shouldn't be here. Come on. I'll take you to LV 2. That's where you wanted to go, right?" he said.

"Uh, yeah..." I heard Kaleb say.

"Thank you..." I mumbled.

"Ah. Don't mention it. That's what I do," he said. As we headed towards the exit, I took the chance to look at our now silent savior. He wore old Japanese styled clothes, but one of his arms was not in his sleeve. He had a katana at his belt, but a also huge blade rested on his right shoulder. He had black hair, but with gray sections. I wonder if he dyed it in real life. He wasn't exactly strange, but he had an aura of... Different-ness around him.

"Shouldn't you be with the rest of the clearers?" I asked.

"I'm not really a clearer. I go around and save people," he said. We kept walking. I tried to start a conversation with him, but the one word answers started to annoy me. Eventually I just turned to Kaleb and talked with him. We reached a giant room, which I assumed had been the boss room. A few higher level monsters were there, and even our savior, whose name I had learned was Tenrai, was having trouble. None of his hits did any damage. I aimed arrows at their weak points, and I thought Kaleb was going to help him. But instead, he just stared at the monsters. Suddenly he yelled at Tenrai.

"Hit them in the Feet! It's their weak point!"

Tenrai looked at him, confused, but then hit the monsters feet. It quickly burst into pixels. He repeated the action until all the monsters were gone.

"I don't know how you did that, but thanks," Tenrai said. I was just as confused. A 'congratulations' message appeared in front of Kaleb with a dinging sound. He touched it to read the Braille, then closed it.

"What did it say?" I asked.

"I learned a new skill. Radar. It lets me know where people, enemies and obstacles are, where to hit them, and some other stuff... Apparently it can be earned by walking around with your eyes closed for long enough, or being blind..." he said.

Tenrai looked at him for a moment then asked,

"Do you guys have a party?"

"No," I answered.

"How do you feel about saving people?"

•{Back to the Twins!}•

As Aryn and I got up and headed towards the temporary head quarters, we remained silent. A man greeted us when we walked in, and we sat down at the huge meeting table that took up most of the house. After about ten minutes, the table filled up and many sat on the floor or stood to the side. The guild that bought the house had taken charge of the operation. Each large group had one of their higher ups in charge, and they all reported to the guild founder. Although Aryn and I made it clear we weren't part of the guild, as did a few others, we didn't mind playing along to kill the level 2 boss. The guild leader stepped into the room, nodded at the three higher ups, then nodded at the group of solo players and other guilds sitting at the table. He didn't bother to nod at his own guild. He sat down at the end of the table.

"According to the leaders of each group, we may be moving out tomorrow. The ogre exterminators report that all of the in town ogres have been exterminated, and most of the ogres in the jungles have been taken care of as well. The group searching for the Boss has mapped the labyrinth and found the boss room." He stopped for a moment, and sounds of surprise filled the room. "The group in charge of planning the attack stayed up all night to work with the new info, and they have come up with a plan. Today, we will evacuate all the civilians back to level 1. We will go over our plan tomorrow morning at the town square. Afterwards, we will attack and fight of any ogres left afterwards. Now, anyone I haven't already spoken to can leave, maybe go train, and anyone I have spoken to, please stay. We will begin evacuating the town." As the majority of the group, including us, left, about 50 clearers stayed behind and had already begun talking.

"Wanna go get some new armor and weapons?" Aryn asked.

"Uhh, sure," I answered. We headed towards the old man who had replaced an ogre as the armor and weapons merchant. Aryn filtered through the menu, buying what we needed, and selling our extra stuff. After she finished, I equipped my fancy new armor. It now matched my cape even better! Aryn's even matched her cool shawl thingy. Aryn decided that today we could relax. After we said goodbye to the NPC selling armor (Because you should be polite, even if the person you're being polite to has no emotions), we got some food. Ever since eating the Spicy Boar Sandwich at the second town, I had grown partial to them, and ate them whenever I could. Aryn, on the other hand, had spread the Big Mac recipe around, and now almost every player run food store sold them, to her obvious delight. After finishing them at the town's central area, a small green park with benches and a fountain, we headed to Kay's Bookstore, the only bookstore in Aincrad. Aryn wanted to talk with the information brokers who hung out around it, and I wanted a book. Some player named Kay had gathered every book written in Aincrad in her bookstore, and she was even nice enough to sell them at decent prices. After a day of searching, I had a new fantasy book and Aryn had found out a little more about the level 2 boss. While we walked to the hotel, she began to explain everything she had learned.

"-And the labyrinth is in the form of a jungle. He even has lots of minions with bows and daggers. They'll need people with high agility to get close enough to attack him. People with a lot of power will have to hit his club, which will give people time to attack. And tomorrow, before we leave, we should pick up some anti-poison masks that we normally use to fight the Toxic Ogres."

"The ones made of ogre cat skin?" I asked.

"Yup. The boss breathes poison just like a Toxic Ogre, has a club like a Club Ogre, and green skin and red eyes like a Royal Ogre," She explained.

"Can't we find masks made of something else? The ogre cat skins smell horrible," I complained.

"Nope," She replied. "The ogre cat skins work the best, and they're the cheapest."

"Ughh," I groaned as we walked into the hotel. "Fine..." She just smiled and kept walking.

•{Just a line Break!}•

When we woke up that morning, we quickly got dressed and headed to the town square. We were rather late, and the leader of the guild, which I learned was called The Aincrad Liberation Army, was announcing the plan to defeat the boss.

"Any new clearers who didn't fight in the last battle should pair up with a player who did. You have five minutes."

He announced. As soon as he did, players began searching to find a partner. Aryn and I were approached by three people, 2 boys and 1 girl.

The girl spoke first.

"Would you like to join our party for today? We aren't normally clearers, but we are pretty strong. We just want to get to level three."

The boy standing to her left spoke. "I'm blind, but I have skills that will help you."

The girl spoke again. "I'm Sonata, this is Kaleb, and this is Tenrai. We're all LV 4."

I'm Aryn and this is Azalea. We're both LV 4 too. We'd be happy to party with you." Aryn replied. 'Sonata' smiled.

"Okay, it looks like everyone is paired up. We'll begin," The leader of The Army announced. "Whoever gets an item keeps it. Do what you want, but make sure your plan is clear to the people around you. The army already knows their commands. They will attack the minions. The boss will be open. Finally, if anyone kills another player, they will be killed. That said, let's go."

Aryn and I exchanged glances. This was going to be way too hectic. Our only chance would be for the battle to end quickly. Slowly, the mass of people we were in began to move towards the labyrinth.

•{Boss Battle, Torgokk, King of Ogres, from the View of Aryn}•

As The Army pushed open the giant doors, I saw a giant Ogre. Just as the information broker had said, he was green with watery red eyes, and held a giant club. As soon as the last clearer got into the boss room, he turned around. The small ogres zipping around him stopped to stare as well. Immediately, both the clearers and the ogre charged. As the army beat down his minions, that Kaleb guy yelled

"His weak point is his neck!"

Immediately, Sonata began firing arrows at the bosses neck. Azalea, trusting as ever, ran at the boss, distracting him and forcing him to leave his neck unprotected. He seemed to rely on strength, and couldn't keep up with Azalea's cheetah like speed. Tenrai charged at the boss, taking advantage of Azalea's distraction. After standing there for a minute wondering how he knew that, I gave up and charged as well. Slicing up from his stomach to his forehead was a good move, and it lowered his HP to the second gauge. As I got ready to hit again, Kaleb yelled.

"Now it's his Stomach!"

I altered my movement a bit, slicing sideways. Tenrai did the same with that giant sword of his, and Azalea changed her movements to make him leave his stomach unguarded. After repeating this 9 or 10 times, the HP finally dropped to the fifth, and final gauge. As Torgokk let out a giant roar, poison gas came out of his mouth. Azalea and I equipped our 'gas masks', and I gave our extra to Tenrai. Everyone else attacking seemed to back away. Torgokk reared his head and roared again. I noticed his minions become much more violent. Over the noise I heard another yell from Kaleb.

"His weak point is his left armpit!"

I restrained myself from looking back. His _armpit_? Ew... I saw Azalea gag. She started darting down by the ground, trying to get him to swing his club at her. As he raised his giant club, Tenrai struck it, and Torgokk fell over, armpit vulnerable. As I stabbed him, gas started hissing out of his armpit.

"BO gas? _Really_?!" I heard Azalea exclaim.

"Yea, and it smells _awful_!" I yelled back. But we did the same thing again, dropping his HP to only one point. Seeing this, I came up with an idea.

"Kaleb, come over here!" I yelled. Tenrai looked at me funny, but Azalea understood. As Kaleb ran over, Torgokk raised his club, and Tenrai whacked it with his giant sword. As Torgokk laid immobile, I guided Kaleb to his armpit. Kaleb caught on, and landed the final blow, earning the last attack bonus item. He /was/ the reason we won, after all. Not only that, but _he _would be the one to be hit with a blast of BO gas. Hehe. As the small ogres disappeared, and my nostrils filled with BO gas, Sonata ran over. After the minions went crazy, she had helped out by drawing her sword and fighting one on one. A giant Congratulations' appeared, and the crowd around us cheered. Or what was left of it. The Aincrad Liberation Army of Arrogance had already left. Snobs. I turned to Sonata.

"We should start a guild. Not like The Army, but a good one. A semi guild. We won't always travel together, but we'll help each other out when a guild member is in trouble."

"Good idea! We can call it Sonata Team!" she exclaimed enthusiastically.

"No! We should call it Blind Fighters!" Kale yelled.

"No! Twins Club!" Azalea yelled.

Tenrai joined in. "Not all of us are blind, or twins. We have to name it something that applies to anyone who will ever join." He said, reasonably.

"Tenrai is right. Who would be allowed to join our guild?"

"They'd have to be good at fighting," Kaleb said.

"-And they should be nice." Azalea added.

"And they have to care about others and save them." Sonata mentioned.

"Odd Squad?"

"Justice League?"

"My Little Pony?"

"All of those are taken! And that last one didn't even make sense!" I yelled.

Tenrai, the only other rational person, spoke up.

"Maybe we should just name it No Name. We aren't thinking if anything."

"No! We gotta name it something good!" Kaleb yelled.

"How about Unique League?" Sonata said quietly. "That's what we really want in our members. We don't want to be like The Army, and only see value in the whole. We want to see the unique individual, and what they can bring to the group, right?"

" I like it." Kaleb said.

"Sounds good." Tenrai said.

"It's _perfect_!" Azalea said, in her girly way.

"It's great. To the Unique League!" I yelled as we headed out of the boss room, and into Level 3.

**I still need more OCs! Especially Boss OCs! Please review, or send in more OCs through pms.**

**Thanks to Sage-of-Spades, darkninja20, Shimmer Stream, Pokapoka, JackoLillie, and Otaku4now for sending in OCs! I loved them!**

**Thanks for the helpful critique from Shimmer Stream, Pokapoka, and kira09! I really appreciate it!**

**Please r+r!**


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